Lightroom 3 is now officially out of production and is no longer officially supported by Adobe. That means that if it will not open your raw files it never will. You have two choices, basically. You can upgrade to Lightroom 4, or you can use the latest DNG converter to create digital negative copies of your raw images. Those DNG files will be usable in Lightroom 3.

Lightroom does NOT use the Camera Raw plug-in. All of that technology is built into the Lightroom program. The only way you get added support for additional cameras in Lightroom is to download the Lightroom updates that are made available. Lightroom 3.6 is the last version of the 3.x series, and it will be necessary for you to purchase a paid upgrade to get any additional support. And it may take an additional update or two before your camera is supported.

I have just had this reply from Adobe to the question "Just purchased the new Canon 5D MkIII But Lightroom 3 does not support the RAW file format. CS5 has a release which will open them there. Have you any idea when LR3 will have its update?"

But Photoshop CS5 is still the current official release of that product. Lightroom 4 has been released. Lightroom 3 is no longer a product that Adobe is working on as far as I am aware. You can wait, and hope, and beg. You "might" get something in the form of an update, but I seriously doubt that will ever happen. As far as Adobe is concerned, Lightroom 3 is obsolete. Adobe has moved on, and I suspect that is just what you're going to have to do too.

Lightroom 3 is no longer a product that Adobe is working on as far as I am aware.

That's basically correct however, both ACR and LR have to stay in step, so, I would expect to see a LR 3.7 when ACR 6.7 is released in final form.The same thing happened when the final version of LR 2 was updated to match the final version of ACR for CS4. Both .7 versions as I recall.

However having only bought LR3 about 2 weeks before LR4 came out I am as you might understand somewhat annoyed that Apple would totally abandon LR3 within minutes of LR4 launch as has been implied here.

Yes they will send you the latest upgrade if you just purchased it and it came out a few weeks later... I had the whole CS5 Creative Suite Master collection and they came out with the 5.5 and sent me the entire new program... They are very generous that way, you just need to ask! And as far as the software not working, I too have the 5D Mkiii and it is frustrating, but Canon (or the camera manufacture) is the one that changes things and Adobe has to try and keep up! A lot of new cameras hit the market in the last month or so, as did their new software, and they are working on CS6... Kudos to the developers to getting fixes out this fast! Thanks Adobe:-}

Thanks for that information Shutterbugzz but who do I write to. All the connections where i try to write to them seem to either lead to a 'paid' help or want order numbers. I bought my copy throught Amazon. Evry which way i went to try and put my original question also ran into the same problem

You might try a customer service chat or phone number, if such a thing exists in the Euro version of Adobe’s website. Assuming Amazon EU is a legit Adobe reseller, then Adobe should be able to find records of the order that’s been transmitted to them along with the serial number information.

Well we do have one other option. That is, we can just not use Lightroom anymore, be as loyal to Adobe as Adobe is to their customers, and focus our workflow on Aperture instead of Lightroom. There's an option! If Photoshop can open 5D Mk III files, and DNG Converter can open Mk III files, there is no reason why Lightroom 3 cannot. This is a dirty tactic to force people to upgrade. I'm highly disappointed in Adobe over this. Frankly I can't believe there aren't more peopel in an uproar over this injustice.

This is a dirty tactic to force people to upgrade. I'm highly disappointed in Adobe over this. Frankly I can't believe there aren't more peopel in an uproar over this injustice.

The reality is that camera support has to be added, it doesn't just fall from the sky. It's Adobe's policy to offer free updates to currently shipping products. When the 5D MIII came out, Adobe had released Lightroom 4 and 3.x was end of lifed. Could they upgrade 3.x for new cameras? Sure, but it's not a simple thing to ask...it would require having two code branches alive and active at once, one for 3.x and one for 4.x. Adobe made the policy decision that's a waste of dev resources...

If you want to use a 5D MIII in Lightroom 3.x, you can...Adobe offers the free DNG Converter which can create DNGs that are compatible all the way back to ACR 2.4 in Photoshop CS and Lightroom 1.

The other part of this story you don't seem to grasp is who is really at fault here? Adobe for not providing backwards compatibility to old versions of software or the camera companies that refuse to ahere to any raw file format standards...if they adopted a standard file format such as DNG, new cameras would automatically be suppored by older software...to want to complain? Go complain to the camera companies...

...it would require having two code branches alive and active at once, one for 3.x and one for 4.x. Adobe made the policy decision that's a waste of dev resources...

If I were a member of the Lightroom development team, I would be ecstatic about this decision. I hate having to maintain mutiple code branches just so a relatively few users can avoid a relatively small upgrade fee.

Come on people! - Lr4/PV2012 is the cat's meow... - why in the world would you want a spankin' new camera and then use inferior software to process the raws from it - I just don't get it...

Does Apple Aperture only come in one version, or are all version upgrades free, or does the very first version of Aperture support the 5D.3 perhaps because the support is built in to the OS instead of a particular product, or why is Apple’s upgrade and camera support policy preferable to Adobe’s?

Quote "Does Apple Aperture only come in one version, or are all version upgrades free, or does the very first version of Aperture support the 5D.3 perhaps because the support is built in to the OS instead of a particular product, or why is Apple’s upgrade and camera support policy preferable to Adobe’s?"

I have only used Mac's for about 2 years. I bought Aperture 3 so I presume at one point there was a 1 and 2. So far any updates have been free. Apple also alows you to put the same programme (for free) onto another machine registered to you once you have purchased it on one machine. If there are plans for Aperure 4 then I haven't read any on the rumour market.

I have had the updates for 5D3 from Apple for the OS and for Aperture separately.

I finally gave in and Purchased LR4

Today i loaded Canons EOS Utility for the camera. Then I did an expeiment. I connected Laptop and Camera using the USB. I fired off a load of shots both remotely and using the camera trigger and recorded all onto the hard drive using EOS Utility.

The I set Aperture to Tethered and shot and saved some frames.

Then I set up LR4 and set it to remote capture .......... and nothing happens. The Remote / Tethered bar comes up, says the Camera is present - hit the trigger and .... keeps saying BUSY and will not take a picture. LR3 would not remote take pictures either if tethered to to my 1DsMkII with USB, it would only work with Firewire.

The Adobe DNG Converter is a stand-alone application. Version 7.1 does support that camera. What you need to do is launch the Adobe DNG Converter 7.1 and, from within that application, point it to a folder containing your raw files.

Plaese note that it works on folders only, not on individual files.

Within the Adobe DNG Converter 7.1 just select the FOLDER where the files reside and click Convert (or whatever the interface says at that point).